Nonalkaline detergent composition



Patented Apr. 17, 1945 I 2,373,863 NONALKALINE DETERGENT c'oMrosrrIoN I A. Vitalis, East Port Chester, Conn., assignor ,to American Cyanamid Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Maine No Drawing. Application April 15, 1943, 1 is Serial No. 483,174

' 2 Claims. .(Cl-f 252138) This invention relates to a' detergent; composition andmoreparticularly to a detergent composition which is mildly acid,but which has good detergent and sudsing properties.

It is a well-knownfact that ordinary soap isstrongly alkaline when in aqueous solution, since it is a salt of a weak organic acid with a strong base; Thus, for example, even high grade toilet soaps exhibit a pH of about 10.0-10.5 in water solution. It has longbeen recognized that this degree of alkalinity has a harmful and irritating action on the skin and recently it has been shown that severe cases of dermatitis are traceable to this cause. It is a principal object of the present invention to. provide a detergent composition, preferably in molded or'compressed cake form, which is slightly acid in aqueous solution but which possesses good sudsing and detergent properties.

Detergent compositions have previously been proposed which contain boric acid or other mild acidifying agents together with certain classes of wetting agents, notably the com ercial detergent Gardinol which is the sodi salt of sulfated technical lauryl alcohol in admixture with sodium sulfate. Such mixtures have considerable foaming and detergent properties, but the foam is weak in structure and not permanent in character. It is a further important object of the present invention to provide a detergent composition of this character wherein the foaming power and particularly the strength and permanence of thefoam'is increased to a marked degreeby the addition of water-soluble cellulose ethers.

I have found that a remarkable improvement in the character of the foam is obtained by incorporating even'minor proportions of watersoluble cellulose ethers such as water-soluble methyl or ethyl cellulose into synthetic detergent compositions containing a mild acidifying agent and a wetting agentl; By theuse of quantities on the order of 545% of a 5'10% aqueous solution of methyl-cellulose or other water-soluble cellulose ethers, I have obtained cake detergents which have excellent foaming powerand give close crop suds even on hands that have first been coated with petroleum jelly, parafline or other oily or greasy materials. In the preferred detergent compositions embodying the principles of my invention I employ about -90 parts by weight of a water-soluble, normally solid, mild acidifying. agent such as boric acid, tartaric acid, potassium acid tartrate, sodium acld'phosphate and the like, theexact quantity depending largely On the acidifying.

properties of'the material used and the type of wetting agent with which it is associated. The

wetting agent is preferably used in quantities of 5-60 parts by weight on the 100% basis of its, ac-

tive wetting ingredient, although in some cases considerably larger quantities up to about '10 parts may be employed. To the composition containing these quantities of acidifying agent and wetting agent I add a small quantity on the order of 0.4-1% of a water-soluble cellulose ether such as methyl cellulose, based on the weight of the other two ingredients. Larger quantities up to 2-3% of this material have been tried, but no better results are produced than with 1%. The cellulose ether is added in the form of an aqueous solution; i. e., in it hydrated form. It is preferably added in the form of a 5-10% aqueous solution, as noted above.

In the above composition the wetting agent is used primarily for the purpose of reducing the surface tension of the aqueous solution, and any suitable wetting agent'may be employed for this purpose. It is well-known that wetting agents, as a class, are organic compounds containing in the same molecule a hydrophobic or oil-solubilizing group and a'hydrophilic, or water-solubilizing group. The hydrophllic group is almost always a combined radical of an acid of sulfur; i. e., a. sulfonic acid or sulfuric ester radical, which in some cases is combined into an organic carboxylic acid which also possesses hydrophilic properties. The hydrophobic radical may be one or more alkyl chains, or it may be a mono-nuclear or even a polynuclear aromatic or cycloaliphatic radical containing one or more aliphatic side chains. A large number of the surface active agents commercially availabl are summarised in vol. 35 of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (January 19, 1943). pages 126130,'and any of these compounds may be employed in practicing the present invention.

Although any suitable wetting agent may be used in practicing the invention in it broader aspects, I have found that particularly good 're- .sults are obtained with the dlesters of sulfosucresults have been obtained with the amides of sulfosuccinic acid when'the amide group contains a higher aliphatic radical of 12-18 or more carbon atoms, typical examples being N-octadecyland N-dodecyl disodium sulfosuccinamates, and N-octadecyl- (N-l,2-dicarboxyethyl) tetrasodium sulfosuccinamate.

The invention will be further illustrated by the following compositions. These compositions were prepared by mixing the ingredients in the proportions given with the aid of a small amount of water and the mixture was then molded into cake form, although the mixtures can be compressed into cakes without adding water if desired. All these cakes were found to possess excellent foaming properties and gave close crop suds of excellent permanency and mechanical strength.

Parts Com ition E3 by wt.

885a85=m5 8E5 8882295858 What I claim is:

1. A non-alkaline detergent composition of improved lathering properties comprising, for each parts by weight of the composition, 20-90 parts by weight of a water-soluble, normally solid, mild acidifyin ent, 5-70 parts of an N-alkyl sulfosuccinamate in which the alkyl radical contains 12-18 carbon atoms, and 0.44%, based on the weight oi the other two ingredients, of a water-soluble cellulose ether.

2. A detergent composition of improved lathering properties comprising, for each 100 parts by weight of the composition, 20-90 parts by weight of boric acid, 5-70 parts of an N-alkyl suliosuccinamate in which the alkylradical contains 12-18 carbon atoms, and (IA-1%, based on the weight of the other two ingredients, of a water-soluble cellulose ether.

EMIL A. VITAL-IS. 

